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This week's party is over. Final words:
* THE LAST GASP: Nate Silver evaluates all the competing data and concludes that North Carolina voters will join most of the rest of the Old South and constitutionalize discrimination against not just gay marriage, but civil unions and other domestic partnerships.

Commissioner Key, welcome to office. Folks, he's here. Let's give him a chance to show that he can do a good job in this new role.

It actually won't be difficult for him do a better job than his predecessors, for previous Education Commissioners Tom Kimbrell and Tony Wood went on a years-long binge of taking over one school district after another, across the state. This has done tremendous harm to education in those school districts, for it has robbed parents and voters of their right to elect their own school boards, creating a "taxation without representation" situation which is unfair, unethical, and un-American. One doesn't improve schools by cutting parents / taxpayers / voters out of the loop.

This petition asks Commissioner Key and Governor Hutchinson to fix this mess left by their predecessors -- by restoring local control to every school district in Arkansas now under state control. Please read it, at the linked site. If you agree with it, please sign it, and share it with others. State takeover of school districts is sheer madness. It's a big-government "solution" that never works. Now that we have a brand-new Commissioner of Education, as well as a new governor, it's time to ask them to reverse the mistakes of their predecessors, and restore local control to all school districts currently under state control.

State takeover of school districts is sheer madness. It's a big-government "solution" that never works. Now that we have a brand-new Commissioner of Education, as well as a new governor, it's time to ask them to reverse the mistakes of their predecessors, and restore local control to all school districts currently under state control.

What an ill-conceived bill this is -- but it is only one of many bad bills on the subject of education we've seen during this session.

What we need is less involvement from state government in education, not more. This is most true in school districts which have been taken over by the state, such as the Little Rock School District, Helena-West Helena's schools, or the school district where I teach, vote, pay taxes, and where our children attend school. Local control should be restored, for state control means taxation without representation. It doesn't work, and it is both unethical and un-American.

If you agree, please sign and share this petition. It asks Governor Hutchinson and Commissioner of Education Johnny Key to reverse the mistakes of their predecessors, and restore local control of schools to elected school boards, and the taxpayers/voters/parents who should get to select them. This big-government experiment of having the state run public schools is a failure, and needs to end. https://www.change.org/p/governor-asa-hutc…

I hope "person in distress" sees this. Yes, there now IS something you can do! We're petitioning Congress to deal with this problem of out-of-control administrators -- all across America. To see the details, simply google "education reform petition Congress cut administrators' pay" for this bipartison proposal to fix this mess, nationwide -- or simply use this link: http://www.change.org/petitions/the-c-a-p-…

Regarding the statement of Federal Judge Marshall re: the PCSSD mess . . . This never should have happened. The PCSSD should have known they would not receive a federal court ruling in their favor, for the desegregation lawsuit, and the ongoing struggle between the PCSSD and its two unions, PACT and PASS, are simply two separate issues -- as the judge said in his written response to the PCSSD, which I have read, in its entirety. The upshot? The PCSSD just wasted a LOT of your tax money for the legal fees for this -- and it went absolutely nowhere. They aren't wasting their money -- for, as part of the public sector, they don't really HAVE any money of their own. No, they are wasting YOUR money, assuming you pay taxes anywhere in this state, or even the nation, for schools get federal money, also. Had enough yet? Please use Google to search for "Mike Beebe PCSSD petition," and then please sign it, leave comments if you wish, and spread it to others. This petition to Gov. Mike Beebe explains much more about what is going on in the PCSSD, and is online through June 15. Are the teachers here happy about this latest news from court? Yes. Delighted, in fact. On to Circuit Court, where this case belongs!

Smith's bill would render any state-supported institution of higher education ineligible for state funding if it adopts a "sanctuary policy ... whether formally enacted or informally adopted."

Longtime KARK anchor Beth Ward died last night from complications of heart surgery, according to a report from THV11.

I am frustrated and angry with those who claim the only chance of future success is for the Democratic Party, especially in the South and Midwest, to abandon speaking directly to women and people of color and the LGBT community and instead focus on the economy and other "more comfortable" topics in order to win back some of the center.

The Times' coverage of the case since 1994.

Airport expansion, empty lots and Little Rock's fading East End.

Contrary to Tea Party fantasies, it wasn't plucky private entrepreneurs who paved the roads, strung the wire, saved grandpa from penury and made organized commerce across the rural South possible. It was federal and state investment.